Sweetener Purchases in Chile before and after Implementing a Policy for Food Labeling, Marketing, and Sales in Schools

Citation

Rebolledo, Natalia; Bercholz, Maxime; Adair, Linda S.; Corvalán, Camila; Ng, Shu Wen; & Taillie, Lindsey Smith (2023). Sweetener Purchases in Chile before and after Implementing a Policy for Food Labeling, Marketing, and Sales in Schools. Current Developments in Nutrition, 7(2), 100016. PMCID: PMC8364623

Abstract

Background: Chile’s landmark food labeling and advertising policy led to major reductions in sugar purchases. However, it is unclear whether this led to increases in the purchases of nonnutritive sweeteners (NNS). Objectives The objective of this study was to assess the changes in NNS and caloric-sweetened (CS) products purchased after the law’s first phase.
Methods: Longitudinal data on food and beverage purchases from 2,381 households collected from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2017, were linked to nutritional information and categorized into added sweetener groups (unsweetened, NNS-only, CS-only, or NNS with CS). Logistic random-effects models and fixed-effects models were used to compare the percentage of households purchasing products and the mean volume purchased by sweetener category to a counterfactual based on pre-regulation trends.
Results: Compared with the counterfactual, the percentage of households purchasing any NNS beverages (NNS-only or NNS with CS) increased by 4.2 percentage points (pp) (95% CI: 2.8, 5.7; P < 0.01). This increase was driven by households purchasing NNS-only beverages (12.1 pp, 95% CI: 10.0, 14.2; P < 0.01). The purchased volume of beverages with any NNS increased by 25.4 mL/person/d (95% CI: 20.1, 30.7; P < 0.01) or 26.5%. Relative to the counterfactual, there were declines of -5.9 pp in households purchasing CS-only beverages (95% CI:

URL

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cdnut.2022.100016

Reference Type

Journal Article

Year Published

2023

Journal Title

Current Developments in Nutrition

Author(s)

Rebolledo, Natalia
Bercholz, Maxime
Adair, Linda S.
Corvalán, Camila
Ng, Shu Wen
Taillie, Lindsey Smith

Article Type

Regular

PMCID

PMC8364623

Continent/Country

Chile

ORCiD

Ng - 0000-0003-0582-110X
Adair - 0000-0002-3670-8073
Taillie - 0000-0002-4555-2525
Bercholz - 0000-0002-3279-6408